THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1803. 



61 



This observer also noticed the seat of 

 excitability, namely, the three bristles 

 on the upper surface of the leaf. If a 

 cautious- insect walked between these 

 without touching them, it would escape 

 all danger. Thirty-four years later 

 another American naturalist substanti- 

 ated these observations in so far that, if 

 a small piece of meat was laid on the 

 leaf it would close and not open again 

 until it was fully digested, when the 

 leaf would unfold itself ready for another 

 meal. He noticed also that cheese was 

 undigestible and very often destroyed 

 the vitality of the leaf. These already 

 wonderful observations were partly ex- 

 plained by the English physiologist, Dr. 

 Burden Sanderson, in that he declared 

 that the nerve of this sensitive leaf is 

 traversed by a current of electricity, not 

 unlike the muscles and nerves of ani- 

 mals, so that it presents some resemb- 

 lance between the organs of motion and 

 digestion of animals and this plant. In 

 the turf swamps and moors of middle 

 Europe are found plants not unlike our 

 Diona?a, and belong to the finest of the 

 flora found there. We refer to the Sin- 

 dew, which is unknown to most of the 

 readers. The oldest German botanists 

 looked upon these with awe and mys- 

 tical wonder. The appearance of 

 these plants cannot be forgotten by 

 any one who has seen them in their 

 beauty. 



In the height of summer may be 

 found in the middle of the moor a 

 small rosette of light green, with pro- 

 portionately long stemmed leaves, from 

 the centre of which a flower about a 

 foot in height makes its appearance, 

 which only unfolds itself to the noon- 

 day sun. 



This flower is white and star-shaped; 

 this last is of less interest to us than 

 the leaves. The one variety appearing 



in greater numbers is the Drosera 

 rotandafolia. The other varieties appear 

 less frequently, namely, the Drosera 

 longifolia and Drosera intermedia. (See 

 illustration.) The margin and upper 

 surface of the leaves are covered with 

 numerous reddish, or of lively red 

 colored hair several lines in length. 

 Each one of these hairs carries on its 

 point a drop of fluid as clear as crystal, 

 which gives the leaf the appearance 

 of being encircled with a band of 

 diamonds. The contrast between the 

 green leaf covered by these reddish hair 

 and tlie never coalescing fluid, presents' 

 a grand sight. During the heat of the 

 day, after all of the dew had disap- 

 peared from the grass, investigators 

 noticed that these plants only showed 

 this crystal fluid, in consequence of 

 which they named them Sin-dew or 

 Ever- dew; later the name Eos sol is was 

 conferred on them. In those days 

 when they thought to read the use and 

 medical properties of a plant from ex- 

 ternal appearances, they came to the 

 conclusion that they surely had a 

 remedy for wasting diseases, to wit, con- 

 sumption and other chronic troubles. 

 To arrive at this conclusion they 

 reasoned in the following manner, that 

 the sun being unable to dry up this 

 secretion on the leaves, the plant must 

 surely possess the life-giving properties. 

 Alchemists also became interested in 

 this plant and thought they had now 

 found the thing to yield them the 

 elixir of life, and the long sought for 

 material for gold tincture. Arnoldus 

 de Villanova, the chemist, who was pro- 

 fessor at Barcelona, at the end of the 

 sixteenth century, but later banished 

 by the Spanish clergy under the stigma 

 of gold maker and scholar of the devil, 

 contributed greatly to the fame of this 

 plant. He prepared in Italy, to which 



